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Interesting article, though the answer in the title seems pretty obvious: Germany was offering a previously hostile neighbor of the US land as long as they'd en
by aaron-lebo 10y ago
Interesting article, though the answer in the title seems pretty obvious: Germany was offering a previously hostile neighbor of the US land as long as they'd enter the war. No matter whether that was transmitted in secret, in the open, or through diplomatic channels, that's virtually a declaration of war.
Even without unrestrained submarine warfare, that alone might have been enough to bring the US into the war in 1915. It took some restraint from Wilson to prevent an earlier entry, anyway.
- mafribe 10y agovirtually a declaration of war. Have you reflected properly on why Germany felt a need to defend itself against the US?
- jessaustin 10y agoSilly Germans. Don't go to war with opponents you can't beat without closing down all international trade. Because you can't actually close down all international trade. USA's external actions in that time frame were much more defensible than they have been since then.
- chiph 10y agoBecause they were already in a stalemate with France, the UK, and Russia. And their allies the Austro-Hungarian Empire were more concerned with Serbia and Italy than France, etc. So this was a move intended to counter the US should we enter the war ("give them something besides Germany to worry about" was likely the thinking)
- ap3 10y agoThey basically needed a WW2 Japan in WW1
- mikeash 10y agoWhat's your theory for a reason that absolves this? Or did I misunderstand your implication?
- mafribe 10y agoThe US had long supported the Allied side sub-rosa, e.g. the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. At least on some interpretations that support amounted to an act of war. Imagine, to put this into perspective, that you had been caught in 2002 to ship weapons to Al-Qaeda.